28 Jul 2004
Patriot Act Used to Enforce Copyright Law?

I put this under my 'Copywrongs' category, but it could've just as easily gone under general political comment. If I had a category for 'police state' or 'Stalinist repression' I could've put it there, too.

This is part of a disturbing trend of using overly broad laws to prosecute people under completely inappropiate statutes. The Village Voice reported earlier on using the Patriot Act to go after druggies:

As part of North Carolina's own little war on terror, Watauga County DA Jerry Wilson focused on the state's antiterrorism laws to hammer people accused of producing methamphetamines. Ordinarily a meth producer might get six months, but under the new code, Wilson can send a convicted producer to jail for anywhere from 12 years to life. In the first case of this sort, Wilson is charging Martin Dwayne Miller, 24, on two counts of making a nuclear or chemical weapon in connection with the manufacture of methamphetamines. To get a connection between a nuke and meth, Wilson refers to the toxic nature of the chemicals involved in making the drug, noting that firemen and police officers responding to cases involving meth risk lung damage and other serious injury.

When the Patriot Act was passed, we were assured that it was only for combatting terrorism: this was obviously a lie. The camels nose is in the tent - how much further he goes is up to us.

The Stargate SG-1 Information Archive is reporting that the Feds filed charges against Adam McGaughey, creator of SG1Archive.com. The website is a fan site for the television show Stargate SG-1. The charges allege that Adam used the website to engage in Criminal Copyright Infringement and Trafficking in Counterfeit Services. Two interesting things about the charges are that they were apparently set in motion by a complaint by our friends at the MPAA and the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP. Is copyright infringment now a terrorist act?"

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 2 comments | permanent link